Sunday, May 27, 2007

in competition for the worst time

Am I a music snob?

The other day I died inside when I told someone at work that I listen to indie, and they thought it was a band name.

In fact, I hate telling people I listen to indie in the first place, it sounds so pretentious. But the fact is, since I've joined Borders, I pretty much listen to indie or else things that might as well be (on a major label but not a million people listen to it). It was a split second decision, I probably should've just said rock. Because I heart the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lifehouse and others that are hardly indie. Even Ben Folds is on a major label.

But yeah, if I'm talking to anyone and they tell me what music they like, the only way for them to win is to cite specific bands or say rock.

--If they say indie, I dislike them for being pretentious.
--if they say "just about everything but country or rap" I dislike them for being vague.
--If they say rap or country I dislike them for liking horrible music (country's not so bad, sometimes. Depends on what groups).

But if I try the specific band approach people don't like me because they're like, "who the fuck is Sufjan Stevens?" Or worse, I'll mention Ben Folds, and they won't have heard of him, and then I have to dig up his one hit song from the 90's, and they either still haven't heard of him or think it's horrible (not his best work, I agree). Or probably, in the case of the fetuses I am working with now, they don't remember any of the 90's and I just feel old.

But anyway, yeah I did dislike this person (whose own answer to the question, by the way, was Country) who thought indie was a specific band. Way more than I disliked her for only liking country (I live in the midwest where everyone likes it, and not all country is horrible, so I cut people a little more slack).

So I probably am a horrible person, and I probably do judge people on their musical tastes. But... I can still like the person if they're good otherwise. Also, I get happy when stuff I like gets popular, unlike true indie snobs. I like it when the band I like gets money for making music that I love. I like it when I mention a band I love to someone and they actually have heard of them.

1 comments:

Phoex said...

SWEET, I just d/led it. Thanks! :D